Network administrators currently use network management tools to maintain information about the status of printing devices on a network. Ideally, the network administrator is able to use the network management device to maintain up-to-date information about the characteristics of printing devices on the network. Given the size of many networks, the amount of information maintained by the network management device can often be difficult to view as one list. Additionally, keeping up-to-date with changes to the network when devices are added or deleted can be difficult when the administrator is given the task of viewing an entire list of information pertaining to printing devices on the network.
Accordingly, many network administrators attempt to break the information up into smaller groups of information that are defined by some type of rule, which distinguishes one group from another. For example, one group may include all printing devices that are a certain model type. Another group may include printing devices in a specific location or another certain model type.
In order to keep these groups updated with accurate information, network administrators have to keep themselves apprised of when new printing devices are added to a network. Then the administrators manually populate added devices to various defined groups. However, most network administrators are often unable to keep up with the ever changing configurations of networks. Additionally, maintaining an accurate list of devices for various groups can be burdensome; especially when managing a large and complex network.